[D66] UN rapporteur condemns Britain’s criminal role in the torture of Julian Assange

[A.OUT]

wsws.org:

UN rapporteur Nils Melzer condemns Britain’s criminal role in the 
torture of Julian Assange
By Oscar Grenfell
10 January 2020

United Nations official Nils Melzer has publicly released a powerful 
letter he addressed to the British government on October 29, documenting 
the criminal culpability of the country’s authorities, including its 
political leadership, in what he condemned last year as the 
“psychological torture” of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Melzer’s letter, published online on December 31, was a response to 
earlier correspondence from the British authorities, in which they 
blithely dismissed his finding that Assange was subject to ongoing 
psychological torture. This resulted in part from his almost seven-years 
of effective detention in Ecuador’s London embassy, enforced by British 
threats to arrest him if he set foot outside the building, and his 
imprisonment since April 2019 in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

Melzer had addressed a series of queries to the British government over 
the conditions of Assange’s incarceration, including why he was being 
held in conditions of virtual solitary confinement and denied the 
necessary means to prepare his defence for US extradition hearings in 
February.

The British government had blandly declared its opposition to torture, 
while claiming that it was upholding Assange’s legal rights. It answered 
none of Melzer’s specific questions and dismissed his call for the 
WikiLeaks founder to be released from prison, despite warnings from 
medical professionals that his health has deteriorated to the point that 
his life is at risk.

In his latest document, Melzer stressed the scientific rigor of the 
assessment that Assange had been tortured, which was based on a 
four-hour consultation in Belmarsh Prison involving the UN rapporteur 
and two medical experts. The diagnosis stemmed from medically-verifiable 
evidence and conformed to “The Istanbul Protocol”—the international 
standard for identifying the symptoms of torture.

Melzer pointed to the implications of Britain’s rejection of these 
findings, stating that “the conduct of Your Excellency’s Government in 
the present case severely undermines the credibility of the UK’s 
commitment to the prohibition of torture and illtreatment, as well as to 
the rule of law more generally.”

Melzer bluntly wrote: “The official findings of my mandate, supported by 
two experienced medical experts specialized in the examination of 
torture victims, unquestionably provide ‘reasonable ground to believe’ 
that British officials have contributed to Mr. Assange’s psychological 
torture or ill-treatment, whether through perpetration, or through 
attempt, complicity or other forms of participation.

“Under Art. 12 of the Convention against Torture, British authorities do 
not have the political discretion to simply reject these findings, but 
have a clear and non-derogable treaty obligation to conduct a prompt and 
impartial investigation into these allegations and, if confirmed, to 
prosecute the perpetrators and provide redress and rehabilitation to Mr. 
Assange.”

The UN rapporteur documented that Britain had similarly stymied his 
calls for a judicial investigation into its involvement in the US-led 
torture programs associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—which 
WikiLeaks and Assange have done so much to expose. This, he noted, 
“gives the impression of a broader policy of impunity, which would be 
incompatible with the UK’s legal obligations and would seriously 
undermine the credibility of its commitment to human rights and the rule 
of law.”

Melzer’s detailed letter outlined Britain’s involvement in the attempted 
frame-up of Assange on sexual misconduct allegations by Sweden, its 
collaboration with the US attempts to conduct what can only be described 
as an extraordinary rendition operation against the WikiLeaks founder 
and its persistent denial of his rights to due process over the past 12 
months.

The UN official’s conclusion demonstrates that Assange is being 
subjected to a lawless attempt to silence him and to destroy WikiLeaks. 
Melzer wrote: “I am of the considered opinion that recurring and serious 
violations of Mr. Assange’s due process rights by UK authorities have 
rendered both his criminal conviction and sentencing for bail violation 
and the US extradition proceedings inherently arbitrary, to the point 
even of rendering any legal remedies a pointless formality devoid of 
prospect.”

Melzer demanded the abandonment of the extradition proceedings, 
Assange’s freedom and a criminal investigation into those responsible 
for his persecution.

Melzer also drew attention to reports that Assange’s health has 
continued to deteriorate. Last year, dozens of eminent doctors wrote 
twice to the British authorities, as well as to the Australian 
government, voicing their fears that Assange could die in prison. Their 
calls for him to be moved to a university teaching hospital and provided 
with urgent medical treatment have been ignored.

The latest testimony concerning Assange’s health situation was provided 
by British journalist Vaughan Smith, who tweeted that Assange had called 
his family on New Year’s Eve. Smith wrote: “He told my wife and I how he 
was slowly dying in Belmarsh where, though only on remand, he is kept in 
solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and is often sedated.”

Meanwhile, disturbing new indications have emerged of the conditions at 
Belmarsh, a facility designed to hold those convicted of the most 
serious crimes, including murder and terrorism offenses.

On Wednesday, RT reported that Liridon Saliuka, a 29-year-old prisoner 
at Belmarsh, was found dead in his cell on January 2. According to RT’s 
sources, the death was the third fatality in less than a year at the 
prison. The British authorities claim that Saliuka was a victim of 
self-inflicted wounds, but this has been disputed by his family.

RT wrote: “Saliuka’s family claim there have been delays to the 
postmortem. His sister, Dita, revealed that her brother was involved in 
a car crash two years ago that left him requiring major reconstructive 
surgery. He was given metal plates that made it hard for him to walk or 
stand for long periods of time. A report by a surgeon, commissioned by 
his defense lawyer, had determined that he should be considered as 
‘permanently disabled.’ However, his family say he had recently been 
transferred from a special cell to a standard one.”

A 2009 report by the Chief Inspector of British Prisons noted an 
“extremely high” amount of force used against prisoners at Belmarsh. A 
number of detainees reported they had been intimidated, threatened or 
assaulted by staff. The inspector’s 2018 report said many recommended 
“improvements” at the facility had not been “embedded” and in some areas 
“we judged outcomes to have been poorer than last time.”

That Assange, a journalist on remand, is being held in such a facility, 
demonstrates that the British state, no less than its American 
counterpart, is seeking nothing less than his physical and psychological 
destruction. While doing everything they can to facilitate Assange’s 
extradition to the US, the British are seeking to replicate, on their 
own soil, the conditions that he would confront in a CIA prison in America.

The extraordinary assault on Assange’s democratic rights is a stark 
symptom of a broader turn to authoritarianism, directed against the 
working class and the growing emergence of mass social and political 
opposition. This underscores the necessity for all defenders of civil 
liberties to do everything possible to prevent Assange’s extradition to 
the US and secure his freedom.